Djenné-Djenno

Djenné-Djeno (also Jenne-Jeno; ) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali. Literally translated to "ancient Djenné", it is the original site of Djenné and is considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers and best-known archaeological sites in West Africa.

This archaeological site is located about three kilometres (two miles) from the modern town, and is believed to have been involved in long distance trade and the domestication of African rice. The site is an occupation mound up to six meters high that covered 33 hectares (82 acres) in area when first mapped in 1977. Based on archaeological excavations mainly by Roderick and Susan McIntosh, the site is known to have been occupied from 250 BC to 1400 AD. Previously, scholars did not believe that advanced trade networks and complex societies developed in West Africa until traders started coming from the north. However, sites such as Djenné-Djeno disprove this, as these traditions in West Africa flourished long before.

More recently, scholars have concluded that the egalitarian civilization of Djenné-Djeno was likely established by the Mande progenitors of the Bozo people. Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 14th century CE.

History

Origins

While Djenne-Djeno is among the oldest urban sites in the Niger basin, a similar settlement at Dia existed from around 900 BCE. Other research at Dia indicates a subsequently complex chronology of early occupation, periodic abandonment, and erosion of deposits, followed by a widespread phase of mud brick architecture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. Oral traditions hold that Djenne-Djeno was founded by immigrants from Dia.

Phase I/II

Radiocarbon dating has estimated that people first settled at Djenné-Djeno permanently in about 250 BCE. This first occupation of the site (which lasted from 250 BCE to 50 CE) is known as Phase I and is some of the earliest evidence for iron production in West Africa. This initial phase is not associated with the Later Stone Age, and there has never been an occupation from this period at the site, or evidence for it has never been found.